Lisa Cook, Hilary Hoynes, and Atif Mian join Equitable Growth Steering Committee

The Washington Center for Equitable Growth announced today that three distinguished economists—Lisa D. Cook of Michigan State University, Hilary Hoynes of the University of California, Berkeley, and Atif Mian of Princeton University—have joined its Steering Committee to help guide the organization’s efforts to study economic inequality and its impact on economic growth and stability, and to build a new narrative about what makes the U.S. economy grow. As Steering Committee members, they will advise on the organization’s growing academic grants program and help strengthen connections to (and among) our academic community, especially in supporting the next generation of scholars.

“We’re thrilled that this trio of leaders in their fields are joining our Steering Committee,” said Equitable Growth President and CEO Heather Boushey. “As we continue to enhance our academic engagement, they will help us to identify the most pressing research questions related to inequality and economic growth, as well as the rising stars engaged in advanced, innovative scholarship. With their extensive engagement with the policy process, they also exemplify Equitable Growth’s mission to bring together researchers and policymakers seeking to advance evidence-based agendas to address national problems.”

Lisa D. Cook, who has been a member of the Equitable Growth Research Advisory Board since its launch, is a professor in the Department of Economics and in international relations (James Madison College) at Michigan State University. Among her current research interests are economic growth and development, financial institutions and markets, innovation, and economic history. She has served as a senior economist at the president’s Council of Economic Advisers and a senior advisor at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Cook was the first Marshall Scholar from Spelman College, where she earned her B.A. She received a second B.A. from Oxford University and her Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Hilary Hoynes is a professor of economics and public policy and holds the Haas distinguished chair in economic disparities at the University of California, Berkeley, where she also co-directs the Berkeley Opportunity Lab. Her research focuses on poverty, inequality, food and nutrition programs, and the impacts of government tax and transfer programs on low-income families. She was previously awarded an Equitable Growth academic grant, and she served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Building an Agenda to Reduce the Number of Children in Poverty by Half in 10 Years. Hoynes received her Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University and her undergraduate degree from Colby College.

Atif Mian is the John H. Laporte, Jr. Class of 1967 professor of economics, public policy, and finance at Princeton University and director of the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. A co-author with Amir Sufi on House of Debt, a book that describes how debt precipitated the Great Recession of 2007–2009, Mian’s work examines the connections between finance and the macroeconomy. He earned his B.A. and his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was also previously awarded an Equitable Growth academic grant.

The Equitable Growth Steering Committee comprises leading academics and former senior policymakers, including Nobel Laureate Robert Solow, former Federal Reserve Board of Governors Chair Janet Yellen and Vice Chair Alan Blinder, former White House Council of Economic Advisers Chair Jason Furman, former Treasury Department chief economist Karen Dynan, former White House Chief of Staff and Equitable Growth co-founder John Podesta, and Equitable Growth President and CEO Heather Boushey. After 7 years on the committee, founding members Emmanuel Saez of the University of California, Berkeley and Janet Currie of Princeton University are departing. Other founding members included Harvard University economist Raj Chetty, former Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council Melody Barnes, and former Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and now UC Berkeley economist Laura Tyson.